In the book of Deuteronomy, from which our first reading for this Sunday is derived, Moses is telling the people, a second time, to keep the law. This is what Moses said:
“Fear the Lord, your God, and keep, throughout the days of your lives, all his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you, and thus have long life. Hear then, Israel, and be careful to observe them, that you may grow and prosper the more, in keeping with the promise of the Lord, the God of your fathers, to give you a land flowing with milk and honey.
Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today.”
The words Moses spoke were significant and the kind of words that take deep root within us. These sacred words are the basic tenets of Judaism. When Moses says, “…love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength” he has spoken of what the Israelites refer to as the total person, not three separate ways to love, but to love in your entirety, your whole being.
In the Gospel according to Mark Jesus reiterates those words and adds, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
We have trivialized the word “love” to such a degree that we do not understand what it truly means. Love places no price, it is unconditional, always. Love is a force, a power, so unbelievable, and so enormous that they only way to describe it is “God”. God is Love. Love is God. Therefore, if you can truly love in this way, you are like God. This is the whole point of the two readings. This is the whole point of our existence. We were not meant to be apart from God, but WITH God. To be with God, we must be more like God. We need to be holy, not sinful. Learning and becoming holy means learning and becoming LOVE.
Let’s put that into a perspective we can understand. There are a lot of wars going on around the world. Perhaps we have a personal opinion about why those wars are happening and maybe we blame one side or the other for their perceived faults as the cause of the war. Maybe we think the other people are mean and intent on harming a lot of people and therefore we feel it is justified to have a war that will result in many people, even people who are “innocent” dying. How do you think God feels about the war? God is not happy about the war and God does not think that anyone should be killed. God love everything he created just the same. That means that every single person on the planet is loved by God. Doesn’t God know that they are doing mean things? Yes, of course he does but he doesn’t pull back his love from them. I imagine that if God stopped loving then we would stop existing. Period. We “are” because God loves us. The entire universe exists because of God’s love. Remember those 7 days of creation and each time God created something he would look at it and proclaim it was “good”. When it came to creating mankind he didn’t just speak us into existence, he thoughtfully created us and thus set us apart from the rest of creation as special. So what would you think if you learned that whoever you don’t love ceases to exist? Wow. That’s a tough thought…I mean, do you want to be personally responsible for someone being wiped out of existence? We insist on passing judgments upon each other and deciding who deserves things and who doesn’t. That is not our privilege, it is God’s. But what about those people we “hate” because we have judged them to be evil? Well, they are on the other side thinking the same thing about YOU. Hate has never solved a single problem, but it has fueled wars aplenty. And can you not imagine that some people do not know that what they do IS wrong? That they believe they are actually fulfilling the will of God based on their own education? We do not live and walk in their shoes, so we can’t really judge their hearts and minds even if we should.
Remember the John Lennon/Beatles song, “All You Need Is Love”? I think he had an insight to something big…much much bigger than valentines, chocolates, diamond rings and kisses! Believe it or not the power of love has been successful at rehabilitating terrorists. It’s true. Given something to live for, rather than die, they retired their terrorist careers in favor of … family. Imagine that. Loving God with your mind (strength), but not your heart or soul is not a complete love because you have not given your entire self to love. We must learn to surrender fully to the love and service of God and then, like the young man in the Gospel, we will be “…not far from the kingdom of God.”
This week’s Psalm is Psalm 18: I Love You Lord My Strength
May the love of God and the Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!